TheRedQueen wrote:I like the iclicks best too...they're easy to use...with fingernails, with limited hand mobility, in your mouth, under your foot...even accidentally clicking in a tight jeans pocket when I bend over.

TheRedQueen wrote:I like the iclicks best too...they're easy to use...with fingernails, with limited hand mobility, in your mouth, under your foot...even accidentally clicking in a tight jeans pocket when I bend over.

Yup.

That little tickle is quite reinforcing...

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

Its fun! Its fun! In case you didn't read, I just started it "for fun" and it makes it so I can teach Oscar stuff crazy fast!

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

So, catching everyone up..Farrah has been with me for a few weeks. And I swear this dog has a split personality. I am curious on peoples thoughts..The dog I have here is obedient, eager to please, flies into her crate from her kennel (took two days but she has done so consistently ever since). She has yet to play keep away from me. I had to work the first few days to get her to even *sit* for me but now, unless she is really amped up, she does so easily. In fact..does anything I ask of her easily. She acts like a very well trained dog. She also responds well to my husband and oldest son and adores my younger kids.

Her drawbacks..we did have some containment issues the first week. Up and out over a six foot fence. However..instead of keep away she came to the front door. Brat. We had some barking issues but I think that was an adjustment stage. No problems for a bit now. She is also mouthy when she gets to playing. BUt we are working on that and seeing improvements. She will still jump up when extremely excited. But in general that issue has been resolved.

What I am seeing in Farrah, Like Jeanine said, this dog is exceedingly intelligent. She is also athletic, though not overly driven. Farrah is a dog who is ONLY going to be a good dog with owners she respects. And I don't think it has anything to do with earning her respect..she has to like you straight out of the gate or it isn't going to happen. And if she thinks you don't like her, she is going to thumb her nose at you, so to speak. Dawn met her and agreed that in the right hands, you get her focus, this is agility dog material. We also think she is a husky/pit mix and has more northern dog traits than pit bull traits. As in..she is eager to please on her own terms.

My question is..how do you PLACE a dog that is either going to be incredibly successful if the fit is right or a huge failure if it is wrong?

I'd think you'd know close to or right off the bat if she has that mojo going with perspective adopters or not. Maybe not?

I imagine she would be a bit similar to Oscar - he can read people well and knows quickly who he can push around and who he can't - he also will less obnoxiously pushy for those that he likes yet doesn't respect.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Violet wrote:What I am seeing in Farrah, Like Jeanine said, this dog is exceedingly intelligent. She is also athletic, though not overly driven. Farrah is a dog who is ONLY going to be a good dog with owners she respects. And I don't think it has anything to do with earning her respect..she has to like you straight out of the gate or it isn't going to happen. And if she thinks you don't like her, she is going to thumb her nose at you, so to speak. Dawn met her and agreed that in the right hands, you get her focus, this is agility dog material. We also think she is a husky/pit mix and has more northern dog traits than pit bull traits. As in..she is eager to please on her own terms.

What does respect actually mean to a dog?

It sounds to me that Farrah needs and thrives on a structured environment where the expectations of her and her behavior are clearly defined. I think this is what all dogs need, but dogs that are very sensitive, fearful, intelligent, etc... often require this much more than dogs that are a bit more laid back.

Dogs do what works, they don't do things out of respect or to spite us (I realize you weren't trying to be that literal). Dogs are constantly walking that fine line trying to figure out how to make their lives more enjoyable and will certainly thumb their nose at us if they think they can get away with something. Earl will blow Heidi off on a recall outside but won't do the same for me. This isn't out of disrespect but out of the fact that I'll give him one command and if he doesn't comply I'm going to be dragging his butt back to the house by his collar (mom doesn't want to get her feet wet).

It sounds like you need to find an experienced dog owner for Farrah and someone who is willing to give her the structure she requires. I would lay out exactly what you did when Farrah arrived and the rules that you laid down and enforced with her. Her behavior around you is improving for a reason. Being up front and sharing these might help you weed out someone who isn't willing to put the work in.

What I meant by respect is more, she has to click with a person. Not neccessarily in a human to human way of respect. Farrah and I hit it off instantly when she came from the shelter. And again when she came back to me. I had a few days of needing to enforce the behaviors I wanted from her on command but then, easy peasy dog. I had initially called Farrah and insta dog as in you could expect good behavior from her instantly. And I think that is true as long as it's a good fit.

And Malli..I hope you are right. I would like to think you are right. But I was really shocked Jeanine had the issues she did with her after having had her for several days first and not had a single problem. And now that she is back..minor issues but have things all ironed out and she is pretty much angellic.

She probably has both less AND more structure here that at Jeanines. She has more free time out in a dog run which probably helps. And I ahve a very strict schedule with dog rotations and feeding time which I think is harder for Jeanine to do with her work schedule.

I think that not all dogs automatically "click" w/all people, personality-wise... and that's absolutely nobodys fault - it just happens. It'll probably make Farrah a little harder to place, but once she finds "her" specific person she'll be all set.

Violet wrote:What I meant by respect is more, she has to click with a person. Not neccessarily in a human to human way of respect. Farrah and I hit it off instantly when she came from the shelter. And again when she came back to me. I had a few days of needing to enforce the behaviors I wanted from her on command but then, easy peasy dog. I had initially called Farrah and insta dog as in you could expect good behavior from her instantly. And I think that is true as long as it's a good fit.

And Malli..I hope you are right. I would like to think you are right. But I was really shocked Jeanine had the issues she did with her after having had her for several days first and not had a single problem. And now that she is back..minor issues but have things all ironed out and she is pretty much angellic.

She probably has both less AND more structure here that at Jeanines. She has more free time out in a dog run which probably helps. And I ahve a very strict schedule with dog rotations and feeding time which I think is harder for Jeanine to do with her work schedule.

maybe she could do a sleepover/day with perspective people?

I know Oscar is big on routine and has in past kind of freaked out (read : seperation anxiety and stuff destroying) if things get changed, so maybe its kind of like that? Any chance you could try mixing up her times in her routine and see if that sets her off?

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Believe it or not, it would be hard for me to change things up without throwing EVERYONE off. I am managing a pretty largre crew and I need it to run smoothly. So..timing is everything if that makes sense. I manage to keep barking to a bare minimum (except when internal clocks start going off and it's dinner time) and we rarely bug our neighbors but it is definately a tough..maybe swapping with someone else temporarily to see how she copes.

I get it. I work at a kennel/house with 25 dogs that all get run every 4 hours or less

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07